Easter Outakes

I have to be honest, I haven’t quite figured out how to ‘do’ Easter. I feel a little conflicted about the Easter Bunny and gifts on this sacred holiday. And really, I don’t know why I feel that way, because we do the Santa thing at Christmas and I have no problem with it.

But, when I think about Easter, I just really want to teach our boys about the amazing gift that Easter is. I want their hearts to be full of happiness because they catch a glimmer of the love God has for them. I want this day to be one of reverence and thankfulness and jump-for-joy gratitude because we know and have seen the power of Christ in our lives.

He is Risen!

And we are humbled with gratitude.

So…I struggle a little bit. I think the Egg Hunts and Easter Baskets are harmless and I think I need to get creative and really think about what kind of tradition we want to start.

This year, we did an egg hunt on Saturday at a local park. It was a lot of fun and we saw some family friends and thankfully the sun was shining. On Easter, we went to church and had a beautiful brunch. Of course, Jack was exhausted and running on fumes, but at the very least it was a nice day spent together. The rest of the afternoon was spent puttering in the yard, going for a walk and just relaxing.

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This parenting thing is hard. Trying to put into practice what your values are, and especially so, when they slightly deviate from the norm. I absolutely don’t claim to have a plan or for that matter, much figured out at all, but it’s so good to write things down instead of letting it all bounce around in my head.

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And we had scones. Barefoot Contessa of course.

Ten pounds of butter that went straight to my you-know-what, but it was so worth it.

oh andrea…you are a great mom! good for you for wrestling through how to celebrate. God made us ALL with the inclination to celebrate! it’s just a matter of WHAT. 4th of July? Epiphany? Passover? Columbus Day? i think our celebrations are part of what define us, and are what our children will remember about growing up. our celebrations create a family culture that is either beautiful and intentional, or passive, cheesy, and half-hearted. we struggled through the eggs and bunnies too, and decided that GOD made the world in such a way that SPRING reminds us of NEW LIFE! Jesus burst from the tomb like a chic breaks out of an egg. babies, new life, the blessing of hope and a future…we don’t celebrate easter at springtime by accident. (just like we don’t celebrate the birth of Jesus, the Light in the Darkness in the winter by accident either). this year we did resurrection rolls (a marshmallow inside a roll disappears and leaves an empty “tomb”) and a countdown with gifts the 4 sundays until Easter. but you’re right, we are the resurrection people! we celebrate the resurrection every Sunday, and most particularly easter sunday. how sad if we miss the symbols of life after death that God put into the rhythm of the world…thankfully our children are young and we can clunk along w/o them remembering too much of our silly mistakes. we had a funeral right around Christmas, which ruined our “plans” of how to celebrate, and another funeral last weekend, which changed our easter plans too. but my kids are only 3, 2, and 1. so we have lots of time to tweek how we celebrate. i just picked up half off easter books for next year. 🙂
anyway…there are few books i’ve loved about celebrating. let me know if your’e interested.
God bless you!

We do not do the Easter bunny, but we participate in the egg hunt at church each year. For my kids, Easter is about getting up early and sitting outside for the special sunrise service each year. That service is followed by a great breakfast prepared by the elders and deacons. And they love our congregation’s tradition of placing roses on a cross. When worship is over, there is an egg hunt for all the youth, and afterward we typically have a family lunch. This year was Morgan’s birthday party. So we combined family lunch with presents and cake, and another egg hunt.

I feel like we are getting the best of both worlds. Easter is all about Jesus to my kids, but we still can have some fun searching for eggs.